Decisions
by catchingdragons
Summary: Harry and Ginny have been a couple for a few years now and are as in love as ever. But with growing family, two extremely time-consuming jobs and life getting in the way they have decisions to make and growing up to do. [post DH, canon compliant]


_well hello there. this has been flying around my head for a while and i decided, as it's Hinny-Ship-Week over at tumblr, to finally write it out and post it._

 _this story centrals around Harry and Ginny and starts in January 2001. Life after the war is at full throttle and there are **Decisions** to be made. The first chapter is sort of a prologue... I will hopefully upload the next chapter next monday or this saturday if you're all nice and i get 10 reviews ;)_

 _ps.: I still do not own anything and especially not Harry Potter._

* * *

 **Chapter One: I Missed You**

For the first time in weeks, Ginny Weasley feels content and looks forward to the weekend. Since the day after New Year's, that's 3 weeks ago she realizes, she hasn't had more than a day off from training and it's been exhausting her to no end.

Every morning she starts her day with a gym session along with the whole team before breakfast and afterwards has to sit through their daily briefing with the Head Coach and Gwenog Jones, the Captain. Between the meeting and lunch break the team splits up into training groups of their respective positions and finally meet at the Quidditch pitch in the afternoon for a training game. Only after the Snitch, though it is bewitched to fall to the ground after 5 hours, is caught the players can finally call it a day. Once or twice a week every player has a medical check-up after lunch, which is considered a free afternoon because it only takes an hour most of the time and still means no training afterwards.

But Ginny loves her job nonetheless, no matter how exhausted and tired and annoyed she might grow during times like these. The only thing she loves more than playing Quidditch professionally is in fact spending her time with Harry or at the Burrow for Sunday lunch. A big grin adorns her face as she thinks about going to London today and spending two whole uninterrupted days with her boyfriend.

Not paying attention to the growing pile of clothes on the floor and instead humming the melody of "Love Don't Cost A Thing", a song that her muggleborn flatmate Crystal plays on her music box all the time, she pulls yet another dress out of her closet. She looks at it intently and banishes it into her bag with her wand. On top of the short denim dress, she throws a fresh bra and a few pair of knickers into the bag and zips it up. While puling on her trench coat she walks into the hallway, her bag following her on her heels, to get the scarf she got from Harry for Christmas from the cloak hooks. She swiftly wraps it around her neck and smiles at the familiar smell of wood and sugar that resembles Harry so well.

On her way out the front door of the flat, she pops into her flatmate's room. The tall and curvy dirty-blonde sits on the floor in a mess of stuff reading a muggle fashion magazine. Like she always does when she's concentrating, Crystal is chewing on her pinky finger. "Hey Crys, I'm leaving."

"Already?" Crystal takes a look at the alarm clock beside her bed and seems honestly surprised by the time. "Well, have fun with Mr Superman." She winks suggestively and grins when Ginny's cheeks colour slightly. "Tell your mum hi from me. And maybe bring some left overs from your Sunday lunch? Your mum makes the best treacle tart, I swear."

"I'll hex anyone coming too close to your piece," Ginny promises. "You're going out with Derek tonight right? Have fun. And floo-call me when you need me, yeah?"

"His name is Declan. What kind of stupid name is Derek?" Crystal scrunches up her nose in indignation. A chortle burst out of Ginny at Crys' played disgust and they both start giggling. When Crystal catches her breath, she grins at Ginny. "Oh and we'll have fun all right. You'll get the whole detailed coverage on Monday."

"I'm not sure I want to hear that." Ginny grins and Crsy rolls her eyes. Crystal is very open about her sexual adventures and almost always tells Ginny about it. Every now and then it gives Ginny an idea or inspiration for Harry and herself. "I'll leave now."

"Bye, chum. Tell Harry he should come for dinner next Saturday." Ginny nods and blows Crystal a kiss. With her bag still enchanted to follow her, she leaves the flat and walks into the hall of the big apartment complex. While every flat has their own fireplace to floo in and out, there is only one apparation point for each storey. Preferring apparation over flooing, this annoys Ginny on a daily basis.

A few minutes later she reappears in the basement of Harry's building. The house in East London lies in the middle of a muggle neighbourhood and four of the six flats in it are actually inhabited by muggles too. This way Harry has a much more quiet and uninterrupted life than he would have if he had chosen to rent in Ottery St Catchpole or Diagon Alley. It offers a lot of new things and experiences, ways to delve into the muggle world for Ginny, while also posing endless inconveniences. Such as no apparation inside the building or Harry's flat except his storage room in the basement. Luckily, Harry had his fireplace quickly attached to the floo, making at least floocalls and flooing possible.

Ginny banishes her bag to the flat and takes the stairs two steps at a time up to the second storey. A smile spreads across her face as she takes each step and her stomach does somersaults of anticipation at the prospect of finding Harry upstairs. She can't wait to wrap her arms around his toned body. With her wand she easily identifies herself, making Harry's exaggerated amount of protective and concealment charms recoil. Grinning she shuts the door with her heel, ready to dart into Harry's arms.

And is greeted by silence. Instantly she knows Harry isn't home because he can absolutely not stand silence. In fact when he's alone at home, he always has the wireless on or leaves the windows open to let the noise of the city in. That way he can drown out his thoughts, he says. Ginny understands that perfectly well.

Crestfallen, Ginny kicks her trainers off and sends them flying into the full-length mirror at the end of the hallway. Sounding appalled the mirror shrieks in a haughty voice, "Careful, dear! You don't want to break such a fine piece as me. I'm quite antique!"

"Antique my arse." Ginny walks right by the wood-framed mirror and gives it the finger. Harry had originally only hung it because it was given to him by Hagrid as a flat-warming gift after moving here from Grimmauld Place last year. They had joked that Hagrid probably got it from some dubious stranger on the street, because it looks rather shabby and isn't very nice most of the time. Harry had admitted that he warmed up to it pretty soon, though.

Unsure of what to do with herself, Ginny falls onto the couch and sighs. They had agreed to meet here and start their weekend off with dinner at the Italian two houses down. She could still go, she reckons. She sighs again, because she won't. Instead she gets up and starts walking through the flat.

There's dirty dishes in the sink in the kitchen, the Prophet lying opened on the counter and Harry's old glasses lying next to it. Ginny smiles fondly and shakes her head at Harry's refusal to throw the round spectacles away. Hermione has finally gotten Harry to buy a new pair, almost trendy rectangular ones, but at home the git still only wears his old pair.

Sending the dishes to wash themselves, Ginny takes a look into the fridge and makes a mental note to bug Harry about groceries shopping later. On her way to the bedroom she notices a new picture hanging in the hallway. It's a picture of herself and Teddy making faces at the camera and Teddy's hair changing violently between turquoise and Weasley-red. She remembers it being taken at Audrey and Percy's wedding in early November.

The red bedding on the King Size bed is a jumbled mess, looking like Harry just rolled out of bed and left. Which he probably did, Ginny muses. On the right-hand bedside table stands the mug reading "World's Best Godfather" that Teddy, or rather Andromeda, got him for Christmas. Sniffing the stale air, Ginny sends the mug to the kitchen to get clean, opens the window and makes the bed all in one motion of her wand.

Ginny debates whether she should also start cleaning the laundry that is overflowing the hampster, but decides against it after a moment. This is her first weekend off in weeks and it will not be spoiled by stinking socks. Crossing her arms across her chest, she walks back to the kitchen to make herself a cup of lavender-lemon tea. She smiles when she opens the tea cupboard. He might not have any bread or milk or vegetables, but hey there's three packages of Ginny's favourite tea.

* * *

It's almost midnight when Harry stumbles out of the fireplace and wakes Ginny in the process. She squints night-blindedly up at Harry who doesn't seem to notice her. He looks distressed and tired in the dim light of the floor lamp that Ginny left on earlier. Coming into a lit room apparently doesn't seem strange to Harry.

Harry throws his cloak into the armchair and mutters to himself while Ginny sits and watches him closely. She was going to confront him about ditching her all evening without so much of a note, but her boyfriend appears to be so harassed that all she wants now is to hug him. When Harry's about to untie his shoes, he notices Ginny on the couch and startles. He looks puzzled that his girlfriend sits here in front of him for a moment, until realisation hits him.

"Oh fuck, Gin. I'm so sorry. I completely-," Harry sputters and grabs her hand hastily, pulling her up before Ginny is able to interrupt him.

"You forgot. So I've noticed." Her voice contains more venom than she intended to. During the hours she spend in the flat waiting, eventually bored to sleep, the irritation and rage in her gut had grown and almost made her want to shatter the stupid talking mirror in the hallways because it kept making mean comments every time she wandered past it restlessly. Now, she really just feels drained. Deciding to ignore the little tinge of irritation reviving somewhere down in her stomach, she wraps her arms around Harry's wiry torso and rests her head on the comfortable space between his pecs.

"Our team's new Senior Auror has been on my back all day. And Ron's no help at all, because Fowler seems to like him and the tosser gets to actually do field work where as I get to sit around and read through this week's reports." Harry sighs and runs his hand through Ginny's sleep-tousled hair. "But that's no excuse really is it? Godric, I really am sorry. Are you hungry?"

Ginny looks up at him and smiles, overcome with love. Harry usually becomes quiet, broods or shies away when he's nervous, uncertain or sorry for something. A few years ago in fact, he would have been really distraught and embarrassed by such a mess up at his part. Now, he rambles like a scared firstyear on September 1st, something he only does around close family and friends, people he feels comfortable around. That's why she loves it so much when he does it, Ginny ponders, it means he's as secure with her as she's with him.

"I got some lasagna from Roberto's, but the warming charm has probably worn off." Ginny blushes slightly. Her housekeeping charms are pretty poor even though her mum has tried a hundred times to teach her. "I can reheat it while you take a shower."

"You're making this even worse for me." Harry laughs and leans down to kiss her. His lips feel a little cold against hers at first, but as she leans into the kiss and catches his upper lip between her teeth, she can feel the warmth of his breath on her chin. Easily they fall into the familiar rhythm of their bodies against each other. As Ginny nibbles on Harry's lip and grips him tightly, her boyfriend shoves his hands under her shirt and rubs the skin right above her bum. It's Harry who breaks the kiss a moment before Ginny loses herself completely. She gazes into his tantalizing dark green eyes as he gazes back and smiles. "I missed you."

"I missed you," Ginny echoes. Holding him now, she realizes she probably missed him even more than she thought. Giving him a squeeze she wills herself to let go of Harry and kisses his cheek before turning around. "I'll get the lasagna. Meet you here in 10?"

"Actually, can we eat in bed?" Harry's voice sounds hopeful. When Ginny turns around with a frown on her face, he's untying his shoes and not looking at her.

"I thought we'd sit here, watch some VT and talk." While out to get the lasagna from down the street, Ginny had stopped and picked up some wine and candles at the shop three houses down. She had thought Harry might make it for a late dinner, not quite a midnight snack.

"I'm knackered." As if on cue Harry yawns and stretches, making his shirt rise up and show his bellybutton. "I just really want to sleep."

"Oh, okay. Yeah sure." Ginny agrees and smiles stiffly when Harry touches her arm tenderly on his way out of the room. For a moment she stands there silently, watching Harry close the bathroom door with his foot. A sigh escapes her as she turns back towards the kitchen. She really can't help but feel disappointed and a tiny bit irritated.


End file.
